


His Security Blanket

by Linkstargazing



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Comforting, M/M, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-19
Updated: 2016-02-19
Packaged: 2018-05-21 22:21:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6060160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Linkstargazing/pseuds/Linkstargazing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a drabble set back in Rhett and Link's teenage years</p>
            </blockquote>





	His Security Blanket

The phone rang on and on throughout the semidarkness of the kitchen, loud enough to be heard from across the rest of the house. Over the counter flashed a red digital clock dimly displaying that it was past two in the morning. Crickets chirped loudly in the surrounding woods to fill the silence when the phone’s rings ended abruptly. Link was growing frantic from the lack of response on the other end, already made jumpy by his earlier nightmare and, after he woke and rushed to get ahold of the phone, his home shrouded in darkness so not to disturb his sleeping family. Not that the boy was afraid of the dark itself; his dreams had only made him paranoid. And he’d already convinced himself that nothing will calm his nerves except the voice he awaited over the corded phone. If only his friend would pick up already!

Link stared down at the orange light of a streetlamp bathing the floor tiles through the window. For some reason his imagination ran wild and he almost expected to see a giant shadow coming to block out that square of light, so he turned his back to it to avert his eyes. He punched in his best friend’s number for the fourth time. Surely the entire McLaughlin family couldn’t sleep through so many calls in a row. One of them should pick up this time.

The call was then received and Link jolted at the sound of a groggy, “Hello?” in his ear. It was exactly the voice he wanted to hear.

“Rhett!” the shaken boy shouted in a whisper, “It’s me.” He knew the other boy could tell who he was by just his voice.

“Oh, hey, Link.” Rhett yawned. “Did ya have nightmares again?” Of course, Rhett knew that could be the only explanation to Link calling at this early hour. Genuine concern was apparent in his tone.

Link tried steadying his still-shaky hands. “Yeah, bo. This one’s really messin’ with my head.”

“Yeah? Tell me what happened.”

He took a calming breath before beginning. “We…we were hanging out in those cow fields, right. Me, you, and some other kids from school, just runnin’ and wrasslin’, you know. Then one guy said we should go past that barbed wire fence back there, the one we ain’t s’posed to cross… and us and a couple of others went. We followed him down into this place I never seen before and it was all dark. At some point you said, ‘Hey, Link, look down into that hole.’ I looked. And you know what was in there? It was filled up with the body of that dead cow we found, you know, but like all chopped up and smooshed in so it can all fit in the hole—“

“Gross.”

“Yeah. But that ain’t even it! I saw the head of it come up out of the ground by itself and we ran away from it. And then when we weren’t looking where we was goin’, we all ran into a whole bunch of other dead cow bodies! I tripped and fell right in front of one and it stood up real tall and tried to squash me under its bloated belly and…” Recalling the details made him shudder, although now saying them aloud felt so silly.

Rhett muffled his giggles as best he could, but Link knew his friend also thought he was being silly. “You dreamt about cow zombies. That’s awesome.”

“Hey, you wouldn’t think it was so awesome if you had the dream!” the brunet snapped back. “I’m serious, man, it’s makin’ my skin crawl just thinking about it.”

“Are ya able to go back to sleep?”

Link flicked his eyes to the window overlooking the gravel road. The cow pasture lay just a mile or so away. Easy walking distance. “Ah, heck no. Not with those cows so close by. That dead one’s still layin’ there.” The fear was quite irrational, but still…

This time Rhett didn’t hold back his hushed laugh. “You afraid it’s gonna get up and walk all the way to your property? Get its slimy guts all over you?”

“Cut it out, Rhett. I’m freaking out enough already.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll stop. So, do you want me to come over again tonight?”

The question had long ago become a regular. Link smiled a little at its familiarity. “Yeah.”

“All right! I’m heading out as soon as I hang up, okay.”

“Okay, cool.”

“See ya in a little while, bo.”

“See ya, bo,” Link echoed, then they hung up at the same time. And while his excited grin stuck to his face, the absence of Rhett’s voice was becoming more and more unsettling as he found himself alone in the dark kitchen again.

Light on his toes, he rushed back to his room through the pitch black hallway, shut the door behind him, and paced the room with the light on. It took just a few minutes for the two friends to bike from one house to the other, so he had a vague idea of when to let the other boy in. Meanwhile, he was stuck going around in circles, one of several coping mechanisms he subconsciously fell into after waking from disturbing dreams.

Eventually Link assumed his waiting time had run out. He was just about to leave his bedroom to unlock the back door for his friend, when a startling tap on his window made him whirl around. A face appeared behind the glass, smiling and waving in at him, and then the window was pulled upward, letting in the cool outside air. Link ran to it and helped the hands on the other side lift the pesky thing inch by inch. As soon as it was fully open, a teenage boy with the longest, gangliest body imaginable hoisted himself inside through the little portal and tumbled onto the carpet. The two boys laughed quietly until Rhett got to his feet, to which Link came up and wrapped his arms tightly around the other’s waist. “Hiya, Rhett,” he sighed happily. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

“Hmph, yeah, me too, buddy.” Rhett returned the embrace, patting his back, then held on to his opposite shoulder as he walked them over to sit on the bed.

The blond was never one for physical touch, but during times of his best friend’s discomfort, he always softened up and allowed Link to use him much like a security blanket. And for this Link was grateful, clinging to his baggy shirt as if to keep him there forever and resting against his bony shoulder. Rhett would reciprocate by grasping and shaking the brunet’s knees reassuringly which were slung over his lap, and his hands would naturally slide down and rest where they may.

These special nights were all the same. At the start, the boys would talk on and on, struggling to keep their voices low enough that Link’s folks wouldn’t hear. Rambling conversations about unimportant topics were a great distraction for his racing mind, and Rhett was incredible at coming up with distractions. And then, when their words ran out, the two would begin to rest against each other, upright, more and more heavily as tiredness sank in. Rhett would eventually insist Link should lie down and try to get back to sleep by himself. The smaller boy would listen, bundling himself up warm, as the larger would turn off the lights and remain at the edge of his bed for company. Lately on nights as this, however, Rhett began to join him. Not under the covers, just resting his head against the pillows facing his friend, stretched over the top of the blanket. This was very risky depending on how tired he’d become, since he couldn’t allow himself to fall asleep here. He wasn’t exactly welcome in this house at this particular time, after all. He had to keep his presence light and temporary.

Tonight proved to be even more of a challenge to resist the temptation of giving in. Link whispered drowsily, “Will you stay here until I wake up again?”

Rhett had to remind himself their situation, as he would say yes any other time in a heartbeat. “You know that’s just askin’ for consequences, right? I snuck out, remember, I’m not supposed to be here.”

“It’s all right, man. Stick around for just a little bit.” Link’s naturally sad puppy eyes pleaded, and for good measure, he stuck out a hand to grasp Rhett’s on top of the pillow space between them. “You can hide if someone comes in. Just…stay with me.”

“Then my folks are gonna be wonderin’ where I’m at. I’m staying ‘til you’re fast asleep, like always, then I’m outta here. That’s our rule.”

Link sighed, disappointed, though he knew the boy was right. “Fine. I won’t see ya in the mornin’.”

Rhett lifted his head up to check out the window, and smiled back at him. “It’s already mornin’, you dork. Sun’s just about to come up, so you better get to sleep so we don’t get in trouble.”

“Okay, okay, I’m gettin’ to sleep.” Link buried his face into his pillow, his hand remaining overtop of Rhett’s between their heads. And Rhett noticed the delicate hold relax on his hand as time crawled by, until it fell away when the brunet tossed in his sleep.

He couldn’t help his smile looking at his best friend’s face, the boy’s mouth hanging open, exposing his impressively sharp bottom teeth. Judging by his entirely relaxed expression, Rhett knew he was in a deep, dreamless sleep once again. The blond checked out the window a second time, and saw that his opportunity of slipping away and back to his own bed unnoticed was waning fast. One last time, he gazed at Link’s slack face and whispered, “Good morning, brother. Sweet dreams,” followed by a quick light smooch on the top of Link’s head. The secret little gesture started off as a joke, but he eventually had to admit it was no longer. It had become a tradition between the two, which only he knew about, and it was backed by real feeling.

And with that, he quietly snuck out the way he came. As always he left the window open for the fresh morning breeze to drift in, signaling, only to Link, his absence.


End file.
